EXTRAEXTRA

The 20th Century Is Still Not Over: Enthusiasm for Forced Sterilization in 2013

If there is anything that we should be able to agree on as a nation that claims to have defeated the horrors of 20th century totalitarianism, it should be that forced sterilizations have no place in a humane society. Period, end of story. No partisan bickering or endless debate necessary. Maybe Congress can't pass a budget for four years, but in America, the land of the free, everybody should have the right to live without the worry that some government computer will determine the nation can't afford for them to live as a fertile human being. That is pure Nazi stuff, in case you need reminding:

“Sterilization is liberation, not a punishment. Who would want to be responsible for this?”

Supposedly, as the dominant center-left narrative would like to maintain, we're creating a society where people can enjoy the nurturing benefits of a welfare state without the dehumanizing total control of these 20th century nightmares. We can have state programs administering over every conceivable human need and affair, and somehow remain the free beneficiaries of these programs and not their subject. This is the fantasy of every contemporary leftist that has convinced themselves that their support of state socialism isn't incompatible with freedom.

In reality, it's only marketing and propaganda that's improved, not freedom and the human condition. And it looks like the need to forcibly sterilize may be the only political issue that can achieve a consensus of approval from both political gangs, with the angry white right wing indulging fantasies of punishing their favorite scapegoat, the minority welfare queen, and the left seeing it as a necessary, if unfortunate, technocratic procedure to maintain their unsustainable welfare state.

Recently it was revealed that the state of California has, as recently as 2010, pressured female inmates at state prisons to undergo sterilization procedures. It's a bit unclear exactly how voluntary this program was, but it seems the vaunted principle of free women's reproductive choice in the state of California is manifest in doctors cajoling less educated inmates into self-elimination from the gene pool.

In any case, even if this was an entirely voluntary program, there is great grassroots support for making it mandatory, if internetcomments are any measure.

First, you've got your hardcore fascists that really seem to enjoy the notion of the medical torture of prisoners, among their other grandiose plans to eliminate their favorite scapegoats. Keep in mind that this is more or less the same conservative base that stocks arsenals of weapons on the mere chance that they may, someday, in the theoretical future, have to face some agent of a tyrannical government in an Alamo style shootout. The actual power the government would have to totally control them as a political prisoner in such a future regime is not fought against, it is enthusiastically granted...

But don't worry, this issue has what we might call bipartisan support. The left is a bit more jaded since things have started to go a little less than groovy in recent years, and, well, if mandatory abortion can work for China, then maybe we were wrong to make such a stink about women's choice for all those years. That's what we are now, right... a Chinese style technocracy where benevolent managers decide who gets to keep their fallopian tubes intact...?

Then, you have a third camp. Perhaps the synthesis of the fake opposition of the old right and left- the enlightened position of the dystopian future. They don't see these women in the state's care as welfare queens to be restrained or paternalistically managed, as that would afford them too much dignity. They're actually more on the level of pets...

But surely there is some opposition to this, some high-minded defense of what remains of American liberty! Not quite... but we should be mindful lest those lousy cats and dogs get uppity and sue us...

For a society that prides itself on having a Holocaust museum in every population center of size, there seems to be, across the political and cultural spectrum, no memory or understanding of why it was that we bothered to defeat the Nazis in the first place. No, there is no grand racial eugenic pseudo-theory guiding these 21st century Americans, but is that all we really object to, then? Would we be OK with Hitler if he had merely thrown a reasonable cross section of marginalized society in jail and offered to let them out if they agreed to undergo sterilization? If the above are any representation of the average American, we certainly can't claim to be of any stronger moral character than the early 20th century German who also saw schemes of mass social engineering against convenient scapegoats as a way to solve the problems of their day.

The fake conservatives should especially understand that it is the ongoing economic death of the country, the product of political, business, and financial leaders, that has created this dependent underclass, who are now seen not as fellow citizens, but as useless eaters who deserve nothing but abuse. The creation of this underclass is the direct product of the immorality of mainstream leaders, who have deliberately cultivated dependence on their economic subsidy and cultural distraction, and the apathy of the mainstream citizen, who merely hopes to cash out and retire before the chickens come home to roost. Perhaps the fake liberals should also reflect on this, as they chase the latest gay marriage fad while millions of the underprivileged are dehumanized in failed system after failed system, from the schools to the prisons.

What will not work will be succumbing to the temptation to double down on the sick impulse to control that is to blame for strangling the vitality out of our society in the first place. That was the error of the 20th century. Instead, let's take a moment to remember that past as we leave it behind with a song.

COMMENTS

Anonymous says:04 Dec 2013 5:13 EST

Pretty simple really. This shit is a part of life and most of these "criminals" are not what you think. You probably work with criminals you have no clue about and think highly of. Where there is an actual crime against another person or person's property, the jail population is pretty low. Most crap people shouldn't lose years of life for like smoking weed or growing it or just living life without hurting anyone or scamming them i.e. forcing your will upon someone else even if it's a bad thing for them. Our prisons are bullshit and can't see how this is just a shitty part of life sometimes? Problems can just be killed off. lol Fucking pathetic humans. Sometimes you just gotta grow a sac and think, "ok, this exists so it's obviously supposed to be here whether you believe in a creator or not and I'm gonna address it, take care of that shit and it's done. We can all chill when we aren't buttfucking a distant relative so we can live a little easier with ourselves. I guess fascism really is in. That Bush era militant mentality is fucking ingrained apparently. It's actually scary when one thinks about it. I've been told to shut up or get my ass kicked so many times in the past especially in the beginning like 03-04. People forgot then were shown all the truths they should have known. Do you know why I love to travel and want to emigrate. haha This place is really fucking scary if you don't live here. I just realized that. We have militant atheists and, let's say it aloud, especially christians, well people who call themselves that for votes.

Anonymous says:30 Sep 2013 20:01 EDT

demographics are destiny. you are living in a fantasy world. behaviors are largely inherited; growth cannot go on forever

Jeff77450 says:20 Sep 2013 13:39 EDT

I am certainly opposed to *forced* sterilization. But it's also true that there are a great many irresponsible people who aren't competent to be parents bringing children into this world that the rest of us wind up paying for, one way or another. (Yes, I know: who gets to decide who is competent)?

Tim says:01 Aug 2013 22:27 EDT

The metaphysical ovens have been prepared. Now the only task that remains is to bring forth the mind in the forms brick, steel, and fire.